Cazenovia boys lacrosse beats Watertown to improve to 8-0

CAZENOVIA >> Cazenovia's boys lacrosse team has gotten off to a great start in 2013, opening its season with seven straight wins.

Frigid temperatures and a muddy field couldn't even slow the Lakers down Saturday as they beat Watertown 19-4 at the Sean Goggin Memorial Sports Complex to improve to 8-0.

"We practice on it every day," Cazenovia head coach Jim Longo. "This is Cazenovia. It's always windy, it's 10 degrees colder than everywhere else and we play on grass."

The Lakers were clearly more suited for the conditions. In fact, the only time the muddy field made an impact on Cazenovia was on its first scoring chance of the day. Twenty seconds into the game Kyle Brown tried to bounce a shot past Cyclones goalie Mike Gleason but the ball stopped in the mud just short of the goal line.

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"It's definitely difficult," said Cazenovia's Ryan Cook about playing in the mud. "We practice on it so its turning into a home-field advantage instead of a disadvantage."

Two minutes later after Brown's shot Cazenovia broke through. Joe Colligan's steal set up Cook's first goal of the afternoon, coming off a Connor Cannizzaro assist. Cook added another goal after he fought off two Watertown players to scoop up a loose ball. His third goal came after Henry Mann grabbed a loose ball and put the Lakers up 3-0 with 5:59 to play in the first quarter.

Watertown got one back 27 seconds later when Noah Taylor found Eric Soderquist, who beat Trevor Cross to cut the Lakers lead to 3-1. The hosts retook a three-goal lead less than a minute later when Brown flipped a rebound off the ground past Gleason. Brown scored his second goal a few minutes later and Cook added his fourth to put Cazenovia up 6-1 with under two minutes to play in the first. The Cyclones' Kendall Vecchio scored to cut the lead to four but the Lakers answered with two goals in the closing minute of the first to take an 8-2 lead into the second period.

Watertown's Brad McKinney beat Cross 41 seconds into the second quarter to cut Cazenovia's lead to 8-3. It was as close as the Cyclones would get as the Lakers scored seven straight goals to close the half up 15-3. Cazenovia added four more in the third and Vecchio netted his second goal of the game for the fourth quarter's only score.

Cook finished with seven goals and four assists to lead the Cazenovia offense.

"My teammates kept finding me on the back side and I did my job to put the ball in the back of the net," said Cook.

The Lakers defense was again stout, allowing only eight shots on goal. Cross stopped half of them to earn the victory between the pipes.